Decades of writing a column about the country's media industry has imparted me with a strong sense of familiarity with media personalities, companies, publications and sales channels. When they expire, it often hits me hard.
In the past year alone, two monthly magazines that provided regular fodder for Big in Japan suspended publication, albeit for different reasons. According to the nation's Audit Bureau of Circulation, sales of Sapio, a monthly from Shogakukan, had fallen from 81,449 in 2013 to 43,702 by the first half of last year. The main reason for Sapio's decline appears to have been a shrinking reader demographic. On the other hand, Shincho 45, a monthly opinion magazine from Shinchosha, crossed the line on political correctness on LGBTQ issues and halted publication as a show of contrition.
Still hanging on is Shukan Kinyobi, a politically oriented weekly magazine that leans strongly to the left on most issues. One of its founders in 1993 was Katsuichi Honda, who covered the war in Vietnam for the Asahi Shimbun. Honda later published a damning 397-page work of non-fiction on the 1937-38 Nanking Massacre that infuriated deniers, making him one of the most politically charged writers in the country.